Bath Time for (Kitten) Tesla
by AnthropologistGirlInTheMaking
Summary: Sometime after Nikola manages to get turned into a kitten, he gets dirty, and Helen and Henry are forced to give him a bath. Oneshot!


Yet_ another_ Sanctuary story! Needless to say, most of my ideas are currently Sanctuary-themed rather than Bones-themed. I'll try to get another chapter of _Alcoholic Shenanigans _up when I can – namely, once I get enough inspiration to write the next chapter. :P

Now, part of this story, namely Tesla being a kitten, was originally inspired by pumkinnubbin's story: Experiment Gone Wrong, so I give her all credit for the KittenTesla idea. The rest of this (excluding the characters of Sanctuary, of course, who belong to their respective creators), is all mine!

Now, without further ado, on with the story!

* * *

"Come here, you..." Standing in the doorway of the small room, Helen Magnus watched curiously as Henry Foss kneeled in front of a table, slowly reaching below it. "It's alright..." he said slowly. "I'm not gonna hurt ya. That's right, come he- OW!" he yanked his hand back, cradling it in his other as a black ball of fur shot out from beneath the table and ducked, shaking, behind Helen's legs.

"Henry? What in the world?" Ignoring the kitten that looked up at her with a look of incredulity on its face, she hurried over to him, gently tugging on his hand until he released it and allowed to her examine the wounds on the palm of his hand.

"I'mma kill him, Doc," Henry growled, eyeing the tiny animal that had "sliced and diced" him with sharp little claws. "I am so done with Tesla." Across the room, Nikola gave a meow of indignation, scampering over to Helen (carefully avoiding Henry in the process) and giving her an innocent look before rubbing his head against her leg. She released Henry's hand and, sighing, reached down to pick the kitten up, pausing a second later.

"Henry, what is he covered in?" she questioned, peering at him in curiosity. Nikola blinked, reaching up and trying to pat her face with his tiny paw, meowing in frustration every time she moved her head out of the way. In the end, he changed tactics and patted at her chest, meowing loudly in what sounded like disappointment as Helen pointedly held him away from her. Same old Nikola.

"Beats me. All I know is, I turned around for like, a second, and then when I turned back I found him coated in whatever that is," he said. "Might be mud; I don't know. Either way, I figured I'd better give him a bath before you got back, but he refused to let me catch him." Helen chuckled softly and shook her head.

"Come on, then," she said, turning and heading in the direction of the bathroom that was just across the hall from the lab they were currently in. Henry blinked and followed her. "I'm probably going to need your help to bath him. He may be Nikola, but he's also a cat; and it is well known that cats strongly dislike water."

Having left Henry to fill up the bathtub with lukewarm water, Helen returned to the bathroom dressed in old clothes (namely a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt) with Nikola happily curled in her arms. Lightly knocking on the door, she pushed it open and quickly closed it behind her. Lazily opening one eye, Nikola peered curiously around the room, failing to note the tub half-full of water. Slipping off her shoes, she padded over to the tub and carefully stepped in, dropping down to her knees once inside.

"You'll want to be ready, Henry, in case he manages to get away from me," she warned him, and the younger man nodded, moving directly in front of the tub and kneeling down, eyes on the half-asleep animal. Gently, Helen maneuvered him out of her arms and into her hands, and, giving Henry a brief nod, turned towards the water.

Tensing in her arms, Nikola opened his eyes and eyed the walls of the tub, managing to figure out exactly what she planned to do just before she plunged him rather unceremoniously into the water. With a strangled shriek, he began flailing about and splashing water in every direction, including up into Helen's face; she spat out a mouthful with a loud "_thrrrpt_!" sound, and then tightened her grip around his skinny little waist.

"Henry-" she dodged another spray of water. "There should be some animal shampoo up in the cupboard. Mind grabbing it?" she gave the HAP a weak smile as she caught sight of him; dripping wet due to Nikola's terrified splashing; and then refocused her attention onto the struggling kitten as he went to go grab what she'd asked for. "Dammit Nikola! Stop struggling! You're only making this harder on yourself!"

Outside the door, Will and Kate watched in amusement as they watched their boss wrangle with the tiny animal, having heard the commotion as they came to find her. Grabbing her cell phone, Kate promptly turned it on video and stuck it in the window. This was too good not to record.

In response to Helen's annoyed words, Nikola let out another wail, desperately trying to get out of her hands. He didn't care about the fact that he was getting water everywhere; he just wanted to get away. A moment later, she lifted him out of the water, and, for that brief second, he looked like a drowned rat; and an absolutely miserable one at that. He yowled as Henry, albeit somewhat tentatively, began massaging the shampoo into his fur.

Biting her lip, Helen fought to hold onto him as he squirmed and tried to bite and scratch her in the hopes of escaping. He felt mildly bad about that; he didn't _want_ to hurt her; but he had no choice. She, of course, felt terrible for upsetting him so much; she never had liked hurting him either, no matter the circumstances. As he looked up at her with his big brown eyes, shooting her a look of pure sadness, she could tell that he clearly felt betrayed. As Henry finished up, she gently stuck him back in the water, gently rubbing away the foamy soap.

By this point, the Big Guy, who, after finding that no one had shown up for lunch, had gone to search for everyone, and had joined the other two outside of the door; all three were now laughing at the poor vampire/kitten's expense.

The second she was done and had made sure that none of the soap or whatever it was that had been on him beforehand remained, she let him go, and he flung himself out of the water, claws scraping against the side of the tub. He sat huddled on the floor, cold and wet and shaking like there was no tomorrow. Both Henry and Helen gave sighs of relief, and Helen stepped out of the tub; soaked right to the bone and now very cold; and grabbed a big fluffy towel, gently leaning down and scooping Nikola up in it. She bundled it around him and then proceeded to dry him off best she could. She debated getting the hair dryer to dry him completely, and then decided against it as she figured she had probably scared him enough for one day.

As soon as she finished drying him off, he launched himself out of the towel and slunk over to the corner of the room, huddling there and eyeing both of them with a look of contempt. Sighing, she pulled open the door, lifting a brow at three huddled outside, who promptly leapt out of the way as the kitten shot off like a rocket down the hall, headed for Helen's room.

"I have to ask...what the hell were you doing to him in there? It sounded like he was being neutered or something," Kate said, turning back to face the pair who were now trying to dry themselves off.

"He somehow managed to get himself dirty, so we gave him a bath," her boss responded, giving up on getting dry and chucking the towel in the hamper inside the door. "Needless to say, he was not happy." Kate snorted.

"Yeah, we got that from the shrieking," she laughed. She eyed the direction that he'd run off in. "Where'd he go?"

"My room, most likely," Helen sighed. "He's decided that he plans to stay there, no matter how many times I kick him out." she sighed again, eyeing her damp clothing.

"Now, if there is nothing else you need, I need to go get changed." she headed for the door. "And you all need to get back to work."

Later that evening, Helen quietly stepped into her room, closing the door behind her as she spotted Nikola curled up on the pillow he had long since claimed as his. Lifting his head, he blinked at her sleepily for a moment before pointedly turning his back on her. Obviously, he was still rather pissed.

Knowing he'd get over it sooner or later, she ducked into her bathroom briefly to change, and then crawled onto her bed. Reaching over, she gently scratched his head and, not surprisingly, he ignored her - for the most part. After a few moments, he slowly turned to look at her through slitted eyes, pausing before tentatively padding over and curling up on her stomach, eyeing her until she returned to petting him.

"Am I'm forgiven?" she asked, wrinkling her nose when he licked her hand in way of response. "I'll take that as a yes." Nikola purred quietly, snuggling back down.

Rolling her eyes at his persistence against giving up his spot, she finally managed to get him to shift off and curl up beside her instead. Flicking off the light, she lay down herself, and, much to her brief surprise, fell straight asleep.

* * *

Oi. I strongly dislike this ending. . It…just doesn't seem right. I don't know. Oh well. :/

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